Spofity signs first U.S. deal with Sony

Following rumors that streaming music provider Spotify was close to reaching its first deal with a U.S. record label, MediaMemo reports that the company has finally put one in its win column stateside. Spotify today signed a deal with Sony that will give the service access to Sony’s music catalog in the U.S., according to the report. The terms of the deal are said to be very similar to Spotify’s European deals, which would give U.S. users access to ad-supported streaming to a computer for free or ad-free streaming to a variety of devices for a monthly fee. The deal does not mean that a U.S. launch of the Spotify service is imminent, however. The company still needs to get additional labels on board, and it has had a great deal of trouble wooing U.S. labels thus far. Theories as to why labels are so reluctant include fear of further cannibalization of CD sales and fear of upsetting Apple, the top music retailer in the country.

I just have to note that Spotify at a glance sounds a lot like the recently canned Nokia Comes with Music program. I would suspect that they are one of the reasons Nokia wasn’t able to grow their own service. This leads me to believe this sort of service is a niche market because if alot of people were using these types of services then you’d see more competitors jumping on the bandwagon instead of jumping off.

http://www.facebook.com/lazarocasanova Lazaro Casanova

Really hope other US labels jump onboard. US labels need to get rid of the old geezers running the show and start opening to some new ideas like Spotify.

http://t3kd.com Matthew

If they are just now inking their first deal in the US we have no hope of them coming anytime soon. Years, folks, years.